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	Former Deputy Chief Feared Firing and a Civil Suit, Inquiry Told By Trevor Pritchard Standard-Freeholder June 8, 2008 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1063458 Tensions at police headquarters were running so high in the early 1990s that the former deputy chief believed he was going to face a civil lawsuit from then-chief Claude Shaver, the Cornwall Public Inquiry heard Friday. "I no longer trusted him, I think, by that point," said Joseph St. Denis, who was the Cornwall Police Service's deputy chief from 1987 to 2001. St. Denis had testified Thursday that when he joined the force, he found Shaver to be an "excellent" leader. But within a few years, their relationship had deteriorated to the point that St. Denis had consulted a lawyer in case Shaver were to charge him with breaching the Police Services Act, the inquiry heard. Morale at CPS had been suffering at least since 1990, when six staff sergeants signed a letter citing serious problems with Shaver's leadership and calling for him to resign. St. Denis testified he went to Shaver's home in 1991 to talk about "change for the betterment of the force." That visit turned into a "blow-up" that left St. Denis with the impression Shaver might take legal action against him, he told commission counsel Pierre Dumais. "That must have affected your ability to do your job?" Dumais asked. "It did somewhat," said St. Denis. While the pair stopped socializing together. St. Denis said he and Shaver tried to maintain a professional relationship in front of the force's officers. Shaver — who is expected to begin testifying at the inquiry Monday — announced his retirement in late 1993. That same year, representatives from the Ministry of the Solicitor General spent two weeks in Cornwall conducting an audit of the CPS. The authors concluded there was no consistent managerial style coming from the chief and deputy chief's office, and chided St. Denis for lacking "solid operational comeptence" to be able to take the reins in the chief's absence. After reading the audit, St. Denis blasted the authors' "methodology" in a sternly written letter to Carl Johnston, who by January 1994 had taken over from Shaver as the force's acting chief. "I went through hell over the years and to have my position criticized the way it was (in the audit) is totally unfair and unacceptable," St. Denis wrote. "I view these comments as coming from those types of people who enter the battle field after the war is over to bayonet the wounded." He also told Johnston he felt his authority had been "controlled, curtailed, bypassed, overlooked or ignored" by the former chief and members of the police board. St. Denis said Friday he regretted his harsh language, but added the audit's findings forced him to make a strong statement. "I was in no doubt trying to defend my job to Carl," said St. Denis. "My job was at stake." At the same time St. Denis' relationship with Shaver was disintegrating, the force was investigating abuse allegtions brought by David Silmser against Rev. Charles MacDonald and former probation officer Ken Seguin. Silmser first went to the CPS in December 1992, alleging that MacDonald had sexually abused him while he was an altar boy decades earlier. The case was closed after Silmser accepted a $32,000 payout from the local Roman Catholic diocese and refused to proceed against MacDonald. In another memo, St. Denis criticized the chief's involvement in the case— including the fact that he personally drove to Ottawa with another officer to speak to a papal representative about MacDonald. "The chain of command had been bypassed for sure," said St. Denis, adding he felt Shaver was keeping him "out of the loop." MacDonald was later charged by the OPP in 1996 with abusing a number of youths. Those charges were stayed six years later after a judge decided they'd taken too long to come to trial. MacDonald has always maintained his innocence. Seguin committed suicide in 1993 and was never charged. St. Denis is scheduled to return to the stand at the inquiry — which is probing how institutions like the CPS handled historical sexual abuse allegations — on June 23.
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